Posts Tagged ‘Faith No More’
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Looking back at this year, I realise what a strange year it has been. There have been plenty of ups and downs, but I’ve been consistently surprised with all of it along the way. It wasn’t a stock standard year. Which I guess means you mark it down as a year things changed. In certain scenarios that might not be a good thing, but I think if you look forward, then you can find positives.
Looking back there were some not so nice things that happened that I’d rather not dwell on. Even now, Christchurch City is still getting some big after shocks that the city centre has had to be re-evaluated again, so they can see what further damage might have occurred. Boxing day is not supposed to be about the town getting punched again! For all of you battling it out in Canterbury. My thoughts are with you. I hope your homes and businesses will endure after this tough period in the region has passed.
The year hasn’t been without some interesting moments though.
Some thoughts on 2010:
The World Cup – It was nice to have another sport besides rugby in the spotlight. That brief respite will be short lived though. 2011 welcomes the Rugby world cup, and this time I won’t be able to ignore it, as New Zealand is hosting it. I did enjoy the World Cup though.
Music – Seems like it was a year for revisiting some old friends. We had Soundgarden & Faith No More reform and start touring again. I was fortunate to see Faith No More play a show here in Auckland. Other bands began playing classic albums from front to back as a draw card to go see them play. It was amazing to see Shihad play both Killjoy and The General Electric live. The latter will be repeated again at the Big Day out 2011. Other bands from my youth that I saw were Metallica and the Smashing Pumpkins.
Travel – If you plan on going somewhere, make sure your shit is locked up tight, or you have a house sitter organised. As we found out after a couple of days in Melbourne – being burgled is the worst. That said, I had an awesome time this year traveling to Melbourne, Wellington and Christchurch.
Film – Not sure if I have a favourite from what I saw this year. I really enjoyed Pixar’s “Up” though – which I only just saw this year.
Finally, if you made it through all that. Thanks to you for reading this. I really appreciate all the support, all the comments on the comics and the site. It’s cool that some people have found it, and enjoyed it. I just want to keep going and making more stories for everyone, so thank you all.
Cheers
Marc
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Hello. Did you enjoy your weekend?
Mine was good. I finished up work on a new page for this webcomic, and I was also able to catch up with a good friend of mine. That was rad. Any weekend you can hit the trio of art, hamburgers and beer has to be a good one right? It was busy, but in a good way. After seeing Faith No More, I think it was just what the doctor ordered.
I got an order for a new custom cover. So I got that busted out over the weekend as well. It was fun to get some traditional art done for a change. Nick G, hope you enjoy!
Hope all is well in your world!
Thanks for reading
Marc!
Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.
Faith no More was an excellent concert. I had fun. Like most live events though your enjoyment of a show can really hinge on the audience itself. I’ve been to shows where because the crowd was lacklustre, the band was the same. It works the other way round too. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Faith no More I am pleased to say had the crowd eating out of their hands. The only thing that threatened to derail the show for me was “Missing Toof Guy”.
About two thirds into the set everyone is getting their groove on, and just enjoying themselves. I was in the General Admission area, because this didn’t seem like the kind of show I would want to be seated at. Most people that had seats were actually standing anyway. A big burly dude appears in my immediate proximity and recognises a friend of his who was standing right next to me. Dude had come from closer to the stage than we were, and was absolutely drenched in sweat. He kept going on about how he lost one of his teeth in all the action closer to the stage. It wasn’t the most eloquent of exchanges.
“Bro! Missing Tooof! Haaa Haaaa Haaaa!”
He was extremely obnoxious and arrogant. To make matters worse, he was rolling into people bowling them over and at the same time to greasing them up with his sweat something akin to how “Slimer” would goo someone from Ghostbusters. The slightest touch and you too were dripping wet from HIS sweat on one side. Unfortunately someone in front of him reacted to this moisturous effect. Turning around disgusted he pushes Missing Toof Guy. Missing Toof Guy (MTG) suddenly goes from happy go lucky mode into bar room brawler mode. He is not a small guy either. Things start to get very ugly, with the guy who pushed him immediately recognising it was a big error in judgement, and starts to back down. MTG needs to prove he is the Alpha male though and continues to pursue the possibility of a fight. I’m standing directly next to both of these guys, so now I’m totally out of the concert experience for at least two songs. I know that if shit goes down, there is a big chance I’m getting caught in the middle of it, whether I like it or not. All of this is happening while the song “The gentle art of making enemies” is playing. There is irony there I guess.
Like Murtaugh from “Lethal Weapon” – I can recognise that I’m too old (and crippled) for this shit.
Things eased a bit when MTG took off for a while. I was relieved. Turns out he only went for another beer and to bring some of his boys closer to the fight action. Great. He even made a point of tapping the pushing guy on the shoulder to let him know he had returned to start some shit after the show finished. I’ll give credit where it is due though. Before the encore had even begun, the guy who did the pushing bounced, and MTG and his brawler friends had to choose between their love of fighting, or the concert experience. They chose to stay. I was able to enjoy the rest of the show, and decided that not making eye contact with MTG was wise, seeing as he had that lost opportunity of a fight slip through his fingers, he’d probably look to start more shit if he could.
I might have missed two songs or so, but I am happy nothing transpired from it.
Be safe out there. Heh.
Thanks for reading!
Marc
Last night I was lucky enough to catch one of my favourite bands from my youth, Faith No More (who for the sake of my laziness will be referenced to as “FNM” in this post). The anticipation and expectation of their self proclaimed second coming had set the bar high. I think everyone was expecting a lot. To make things less complicated I actually took the day off work and spent the day drawing, slowly psyching myself for the upcoming show. By 6pm, I finally got my ass down to a local fast food joint and then after a rushed dinner made my way to the venue, Vector Arena in central Auckland.
Parking is always a pain in the ass, but I found a good spot. Not long after entering the venue, the first band Eagles of Death Metal came on to warm the crowd up. By the time they were down they had definitely accomplished that task. “Can you dig it?” and “Ladies!” seemed to be their catch cries of the evening. They were just good old rock n roll. It was fun. However the crowd were definitely there to see FNM. So…did they measure up? Quite frankly. Fuck yes.
The intro had the band playing a cover of “Reunited”, before Mike Patton strutted on stage in a pimping suit with a cane for walking aid to add the vocals. It was great. They quickly got into “From Out of Nowhere” to start proceedings off. I got pretty much all the songs I wanted to hear – except for “We Care A Lot”, can’t win them all I guess. There were even some unexpected songs thrown into the set. Very welcome. Some were the bands own. A couple were not. A brief cover of Lady GaGa’s “Pokerface” had the crowd amused before blasting into “Chinese Arithmetic”. At the end of the set the band gave us two encores. On the first they ended with Crowded House’s classic “Don’t dream it’s over”. Encore number 2 they came back and asked if the crowd wanted more. A rapturous cheer let the band know the verdict. Again, they launch into the same Crowded House song. They do this another couple of times before drawing some boos. Ha ha! Mike Patton replies to the criticism with a “what? – you said you wanted more – I thought we were giving you what you wanted?” It was awesome.
The crowd was definitely reflective of the bands longevity. I doubt there was anyone under the age of 25 at the venue.
It was an amazing concert. Some other things worth noting. The backdrop was simple velvet looking curtains being back-lit with different shades of lighting. It helped keep the casual mood. At one point someone threw a shoe on stage. Which Mike Patton picked up, huffed a couple of times, before throwing it back out into the crowd. The set was stopped for two minutes, with the band urging the crowd to chant “Tom Jones!” in an effort to coax the man from his hiding place. The attempt was in vein. Tom Jones never showed up. “I guess he ain’t here” – General Patton said. We put in all that effort and the bastard doesn’t even show up? Rude.
Photos of this concert are on my Flickr page.
The people surrounding me were mostly well behaved. I’ll post on this more tomorrow.
If the band is coming near you. I very much recommend attending the show.
Thanks for reading
Marc!